Andre Benjamin

As the more outlandish and introspective half of the experimental rap duo OutKast, Andre Benjamin - also known as Andre 3000, Dré, Three Stacks and a half dozen other monikers - established him...
Read More...

Jimi Hendrix's former girlfriend Kathy Etchingham has lashed out at director John Ridley and the filmmakers behind 2014 biopic Jimi: All Is By My Side for the inaccuracies about her romance with the guitar great in the movie. Etchingham has offered to produce medical records to prove violent scenes in the film never took place, calling the errors in the movie "shocking".
She tells DJ Rich Davenport that brutal scenes featuring Hayley Atwell, who portrays her, and Andre Benjamin as Hendrix in the film are pure fantasy.
Etchingham states, "The whole story is a fabrication. Even the things that did happen have not been produced accurately.
"John Ridley didn't consult me, so I don't know where he got it from. Apparently Jimi beat my head in with a telephone receiver and then beat me up in the street. They've got me taking an overdose of tablets and being in hospital. None of these things happened.
"I was completely shocked. If somebody beat you up like that, the police would be involved. If you took an overdose a psychiatrist would be involved. With the National Health Service your medical records stay with you for life. I'd be quite happy to produce them - there'd be nothing in there."
Etchingham admits she offered Ridley help as a consultant when she heard Outkast rapper Benjamin had been cast as Hendrix, adding, "I wrote a nice email saying, 'If you need any help don't hesitate to ask'. He didn't even have the common courtesy to say thanks but no thanks. He didn't respond. He went out of his way not to talk to me.
"He still maintains he spoke to Jimi's friends. I know them all - and none of them have heard of John Ridley."

Gugu Mbatha-Raw's period drama Belle looks set to lead Britain's National Film Awards (NFAs) after landing six nominations. The film, about the illegitimate daughter of a Royal Navy Captain, has won nods in the Best Drama and Best Screenplay categories while Mbatha-Raw is up for Best Newcomer and Best Breakthrough Performance, her co-star Tom Felton for Best Actor and Amma Asante for Best Director.
Mbatha-Raw is also in the running for the Best Actress prize her drama Beyond the Lights.
Belle will compete against movies including The Fault in Our Stars, Pride and Mr. Turner in the Best Drama category, while Mbatha-Raw will battle it out with Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars), Jamie Foxx (Annie), Michael Fassbender (Frank) and Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game), among others, for the Best Breakthrough Performance prize.
Nominees for Best International Film include Boyhood, Gone Girl, Guardians of the Galaxy, Selma, Wild, The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything.
Ben Affleck has landed a Best Actor nod for his role in Gone Girl, while other nominees include David Oyelowo (Selma), Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game), Jack O'Connell ('71) and Outkast's Andre Benjamin for Jimi: All Is By My Side.
Shailene Woodley and Gugu Mbatha-Raw will go head-to-head once more for the Best Actress prize, alongside Quvenzhane Wallis (Annie), Imelda Stauton (Pride), Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game) and Thandie Newton (Half a Yellow Sun), among others.
Dame Judi Dench will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award in honour of her 50-year career on stage and screen.
The winners, as voted by the public, will be announced in London on 31 March (15).

Rapper Andre 3000 is launching a T-shirt line inspired by his jumpsuit collection from Outkast's 20th anniversary festival dates earlier this year (14). The Ms. Jackson hitmaker, real name Andre Benjamin, wore a different custom one-piece outfit for each of the hip-hop duo's summer reunion shows and the collection is currently on display at the Savannah College of Art and Design's i feel ya: SCAD + Andre 3000 Benjamin exhibit at Art Basel Miami Beach in Florida.
Now he is designing a shirt line, which will feature socially-charged quotes such as, "I pray there's a god at the end of all this" and "across cultures, darker people suffer most. why?"
Benjamin tells Hard Knock TV, "It started off as one message and I kind of continued it from there. They're just thoughts that I'm having."
A release date for the collection has yet to be announced.

Michael Keaton's critically-acclaimed Birdman will lead the way at the 2015 Independent Spirit Awards after landing six nominations on Tuesday (25Nov14). The Batman star, who is hotly-tipped to earn an Oscar nod for his role as a fallen movie star in the new drama, will compete for Best Male Lead against Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler), John Lithgow (Love is Strange), David Oyelowo (Selma) and rapper/actor Andre Benjamin (Jimi: All Is By My Side), while his co-stars Edward Norton and Emma Stone will do battle for the respective supporting actor and actress titles.
Birdman is also shortlisted in the Best Director (Alejandro G. Inarritu) and Best Feature categories.
Other Best Feature contenders are Love Is Strange and Whiplash, in addition to five-time nominees Selma and Boyhood.
Nightcrawler also nabbed five nods, including mentions for Best Screenplay and Best First Feature for director Dan Gilroy.
The Robert Altman Award, presented to a film's director, casting director and ensemble cast, will be handed to the people behind the scenes of Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice, while the cast and crew of Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher will be honoured with the Special Distinction Award.
The 30th Independent Spirit Awards, which recognises films made on a budget of less than $20 million (£12.5 million), will take place in Santa Monica, California on 21 February (15) - the eve of the 2015 Academy Awards.

Rapper Andre 3000's jumpsuit collection from Outkast's 20th anniversary tour is set to go on display as part of an art exhibit in Miami, Florida. The Ms. Jackson hitmaker, real name Andre Benjamin, wore a different custom one-piece outfit for each of the hip-hop duo's recent reunion shows, with each featuring socially-charged quotes such as, "I pray there's a god at the end of all this" and "across cultures, darker people suffer most. why?".
Now all 47 items will be featured in Savannah College of Art and Design's i feel ya: SCAD + Andre 3000 Benjamin exhibit at Art Basel Miami Beach from 3 to 14 December (14).
A statement released by Andre 3000 reads: "As I initially thought about displaying this collection, I immediately knew that I wanted to work with my longtime collaborative partners at SCAD. The diverse group of people that come to Miami for Art Basel Miami Beach are the right audience to see this for the first time."
The art exhibit will be transferred to the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, Georgia next summer (15).

Filmmaker Rob Liotti is determined to press on with a planned Bon Scott biopic, despite the fact the tragic rocker's Ac/Dc bandmates refuse to support the project. The producer admits the latest Jimi Hendrix movie, featuring Andre Benjamin as the guitar great, has inspired him to continue with his plans to put Scott's life on the big screen without the blessing of his bandmates and family.
The Hendrix movie was made without the OK from the rocker's estate - and as a result, filmmakers could not use the guitarist's music.
Liotti says, "The Hendrix film clears the way for this project... We have a First Amendment right to tell this story, and we have the ability to utilise the Fair Use Doctrine in assisting us to do so. We're trying to educate the public about this guy's life and tribulations. What the hell is the problem with that?"
Liotti's film, tentatively titled Bon Scott: The Legend of AC/DC Unauthorized, has been blocked by the band many times.
The moviemaker reveals, "The band's lawyers went so far as to forbid me from speaking to current or former members... I talk to some of these people. There's zero harm in that, let alone anything illegal."

Outkast star Andre Benjamin had to perfect playing the guitar left-handed in just days after learning it would be too expensive to let camera trickery make him look like Jimi Hendrix on film. The singer, aka Andre 3000, felt sure he'd perfected Hendrix's nuances and language for new biopic All Is By My Side until producers told him he'd have to learn to play the guitar just like the late rock great.
He says, "It’s almost the same as walking backwards!"
Benjamin tells ShortList.com the filmmakers were convinced they could just film him playing right-handed and flip the image to match Hendrix’s actual playing style.
He adds, "That meant we were going to have to change everything in the scene, which was really expensive. We got this information just a couple of days before I was supposed to go and shoot it. I was kind of bummed about it.
"I didn’t know if I could pull it off. At one point during the meeting, I was not going to do it. I was going to say, 'The movie’s not gonna work, because I don’t want to f**k Hendrix up and make him look terrible'. I hadn’t practised the left-hand thing once."
But hard work and dedication paid off and Benjamin is now an ambidextrous musician: "I just had to dive in with the few days I had before shooting. I think we had a week or two. I had to just practice every day left handed, until I could get it to a place where I felt comfortable enough to do it."

Outkast star Andre 3000 insists fans should thank his hero Prince for the success of the group's 20th anniversary festival tour - because his advice helped the singer get into the right mindset for the shows. The Ms. Jackson hitmaker admits he was worried Outkast's big comeback show at Coachella in April (14) would be a big let down for fans - because he couldn't summon up the passion he needed to wow them.
He tells the New York Times, "I kind of fluffed through rehearsals (and) a few hours before the Coachella show, I get a message that Prince and Paul McCartney are going to be there. My spirit is not right, and idols are standing side-stage, so as the show started, I'm bummed. This is horrible. In my mind I was already gone to my hotel room halfway through."
Two days after the show, Andre 3000 received a phone call from Prince, who set him straight.
He recalls, "It was my first time actually talking to Prince. He said, 'When you come back, people want to be wowed. And what's the best way to wow people? Just give them the hits'.
"He broke it down like this: 'You're a grown man. You're either going to do it or you're not'."
The chat prompted the singer, real name Andre Benjamin, to stop over-thinking his act and to start enjoying himself onstage in front of fans who were thrilled to see him perform.

Rapper/actor Andre 3000 has credited his role as tragic rocker Jimi Hendrix in an upcoming biopic with saving him from a deep depression following the death of his mother last year (May13). The Outkast star was left devastated when his mum, Sharon Benjamin Hodo, was found dead at her Georgia home, a day after his 38th birthday, but he admits having to focus on preparing to play the late music icon in the movie Jimi: All Is by My Side helped to prevent him from wallowing in his grief.
Andre 3000, who also lost his father, Laurence Walker, nine months later, tells the New York Times, "Honestly... Hendrix kind of saved me. I was in a not-so-great space, just in a dark place every day. I needed something to focus on to get me out of my depression and rut. Sometimes, when you're alone, you can let yourself go. I knew if I got on a train with a lot of different people, then I couldn't let them down."
Andre 3000 reveals he almost missed out on the chance to portray Hendrix, who died at 27, because he was convinced he was too old for the job.
He recalls, "I may have said it to John (Ridley, director): 'Man, I'm old. I have grey hair. Get some young unknown kid to play Hendrix.' I turned it down. (But) they kept at it."

WENN/IconicPix
Rapper Childish Gambino is working on a new collaborative EP with Chance The Rapper. Fans of the hip-hop stars are in for a treat as Gambino, real name Donald Glover, has announced he and his longtime friend and frequent touring partner Chance are working on a joint album.
The rapper/actor performed a set at the Governors Ball music festival in New York City on Saturday (07Jun14), and Chance joined him onstage to perform a lost verse from Gambino's song Worst Guys, off his Because the Internet album.
Following the performance, Gambino took to Twitter.com to make the announcement about their new project, writing, "now that chance finally released his verse on 'worst guys', maybe he can hurry up and finish the rest of our EP. #hinthint" Gambino also took the chance to thank Outkast star Andre 3000 on the microblogging the site, after the rapper took his 16-year-old son, Seven Benjamin, to the same show.

Released third album Aquemini; was sued in 1999 over their single "Rosa Parks" by the civil rights pioneer over the use of her name, citing "unlawful appropriation of her name"

Released their second album ATLiens

Signed a first-look deal with MTV and Nickelodeon to produce theatrical films and cable projects

Cast in the comedy "Scary Movie 4," directed by David Zucker

Starred in John Singleton's "Four Brothers" as one of four brothers out to avenge their mother's murder

Starred in "Idlewild," a feature about music performers in the 1930s; also simultaneously released the album Idlewild with Big Boi, which served as the soundtrack

Outkast recorded and released their first single "Player's Ball"

Released fourth album Stankonia, which featured the U.S. chart-topping single "Ms. Jackson"

Acted opposite Will Ferrell and Woody Harrelson in the 1970s-era sports comedy "Semi-Pro"

Cast in "Revolver," written and directed by Guy Ritchie

Formed Outkast with Antwan Patton (aka Big Boi) and signed to the LaFace record label; first rap group signed to the primarily R&B-focused label

Released debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik; certified platinum

Summary

As the more outlandish and introspective half of the experimental rap duo OutKast, Andre Benjamin - also known as Andre 3000, Dré, Three Stacks and a half dozen other monikers - established himself as a bona fide innovator in a musical genre that had seen better creative days. Along with high school friend Antwan "Big Boi" Patton, OutKast became a giant in the rap world, separating themselves from their hip-hop contemporaries by incorporating elements of funk, jazz and rock-n-roll into a genre desperate for change. From their debut to their widely hailed Grammy-winning fifth album <i>Speakerboxxx/The Love Below</i> (2003), the duo became one of the best-selling rap artists of all time. Not satisfied with a career in music, Benjamin segued to film and television with small, but memorable appearances in "Hollywood Homicide" (2003) and on "The Shield" (FX, 2002-08). While he branched off to explore wider musical realms like jazz and classical, along the way learning to play saxophone, guitar and clarinet, Benjamin turned in quality supporting performances in "Be Cool" (2005), "Four Brothers" (2005), "Idlewild" (2006) and "Battle in Seattle" (2007). Following a comic turn in the Will Ferrell comedy "Semi-Pro" (2008), he made waves when he was cast as Jimi Hendrix in the unauthorized biopic "All is By My Side" (2012). Whether in music or on the screen, Benjamin proved himself to be a multi-talented performer capable of pleasantly surprising even his most ardent critics.

Education

Name

Notes

"I would hate to die tomorrow and be known only as that dancing guy with the green pants in the video. I don't want to be remembered as the 'Hey Ya!' man." – Benjamin on his greatest fear to InStyle, September 2005

"I don't want to be on stage rapping at age 40. I want to be at some club playing saxophone." – Benjamin to EW, May 26, 2006